At the age of eight she was offered to the Roman Catholic Church as a tithe by her parents. Some say that her parents did that because she was sick at birth but perhaps it was due to her visions, as a method of political positioning, or maybe just because she was the tenth child. She explains in her vita that from a very young age she had experienced visions. She was enclosed with another older nun, Jutta, sister of Count Meginhard. Upon Jutta’s death in 1136 Hildegard von Bingen was unanimously elected as “magistra” or leader of her sister community by her fellow nuns. As Hildegard grew she became a remarkable woman and became a “first” in many fields.¹
Insight and Influences
Hildegard von Bingen was known for her visions, her writings, her musical compositions and poetry.
Hildegard von Bingen. Image courtesy of http://www.mscd.edu/~mdl/gerresources/frauen/hbingen.htm
By her own account, she was having visions at the age of five. She has been called by her admirers “one of the most important figures in the history of the middle ages” and “the greatest woman of her time.” When she was 18 she became a nun. Twenty years later she was made the head of the female community at the monastery. She devoted the years from 1140-1150 to writing down her visions. The community of nuns at Mount St. Disibode was growing rapidly, and they did not have adequate room. Hildegard accordingly moved her nuns to a location near Bingen, and founded a monastery for them completely independent of the double monastery they had left. She oversaw its construction, which included such features (not routine in her day) as water pumped in through pipes. The abbot they had left opposed their departure, and the resulting tensions took a long time to heal. Hildegard travelled throughout southern Germany and into Switzerland and as far as Paris, preaching. Her sermons deeply moved the hearers, and she was asked to provide written copies. She died on 17 September 1179. Her surviving works include more than a hundred letters to emperors and popes, bishops, nuns, and nobility. She wrote 72 songs including a play set to music. Musical notation had only shortly before developed to the point where her music was recorded in a way that we can read today. The play set to music is called the Ordo Virtutum and show us a human soul who listens to the Virtues, turns aside to follow the Devil, and finally returns to the Virtues, having found that following the Devil does not make one happy.²
Major Contributions
As a child Hildegard didn’t think that her visions were very important. When she was in her forties she decided to start composing them. She wrote plays, liturgies and hymns in praise of saints. She was also considered a healer and early theologian and she was venerated in the church. As a German abbess, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, channeller, visionary and composer she learned what her visions really meant. Doing this she, learns that her visions have Christian meanings. Now knowing what her visions really mean she went and preached them to other cities and countries. Teaching others about her visions was a passion of hers. She loved to tell others of her visions and interpreted them to the people if needed to.
Affect and Effect
Hildegard exerted influence in both political and religious spheres unheard of in her time for a woman holding no royal title, and while she ostensibly would seem like a medieval forerunner of feminism, she fully embraced the church's attitude toward women, an attitude that assigned them subservient roles and viewed Eve as the central figure in mankind's fall from grace. Knowing that Eve was the central figure in mankind’s fall she could better understand the visions that she couldn’t quite interpret at that time. If she wasn’t there to give a better understanding of what her music and plays were about they wouldn’t have the figurative meaning about her visions, writings, plays, music, etc.
The Things She Left Behind
Hildegard was a magnificent person for her century. Her parents may have given her to the church but that's one thing that sparked her learning experience. She became a nun in 1116. When Jutta died in 1136 Hildegard was unanimously elected the "magistra" ,or leader, by her fellow nuns. By the time she had died she had written 77 Gregorian Chants, 72 songs, many poems, and even a medical book. She loved to write. Some of her works were Sci Vias (Knows The Ways), Liber vitae meritorum ( Book of Lifes Merits), Pysikca (Natural History), and Causa et Cural ( Book on Causes of Illnesses and Treatment Methods.
Hildegard von Bingen
At the age of eight she was offered to the Roman Catholic Church as a tithe by her parents. Some say that her parents did that because she was sick at birth but perhaps it was due to her visions, as a method of political positioning, or maybe just because she was the tenth child. She explains in her vita that from a very young age she had experienced visions. She was enclosed with another older nun, Jutta, sister of Count Meginhard. Upon Jutta’s death in 1136 Hildegard von Bingen was unanimously elected as “magistra” or leader of her sister community by her fellow nuns. As Hildegard grew she became a remarkable woman and became a “first” in many fields.¹
Insight and Influences
Hildegard von Bingen was known for her visions, her writings, her musical compositions and poetry.
Major Contributions
As a child Hildegard didn’t think that her visions were very important. When she was in her forties she decided to start composing them. She wrote plays, liturgies and hymns in praise of saints. She was also considered a healer and early theologian and she was venerated in the church. As a German abbess, author, counselor, linguist, naturalist, scientist, philosopher, physician, herbalist, poet, channeller, visionary and composer she learned what her visions really meant. Doing this she, learns that her visions have Christian meanings. Now knowing what her visions really mean she went and preached them to other cities and countries. Teaching others about her visions was a passion of hers. She loved to tell others of her visions and interpreted them to the people if needed to.
Affect and Effect
Hildegard exerted influence in both political and religious spheres unheard of in her time for a woman holding no royal title, and while she ostensibly would seem like a medieval forerunner of feminism, she fully embraced the church's attitude toward women, an attitude that assigned them subservient roles and viewed Eve as the central figure in mankind's fall from grace. Knowing that Eve was the central figure in mankind’s fall she could better understand the visions that she couldn’t quite interpret at that time. If she wasn’t there to give a better understanding of what her music and plays were about they wouldn’t have the figurative meaning about her visions, writings, plays, music, etc.
The Things She Left Behind
Hildegard was a magnificent person for her century. Her parents may have given her to the church but that's one thing that sparked her learning experience. She became a nun in 1116. When Jutta died in 1136 Hildegard was unanimously elected the "magistra" ,or leader, by her fellow nuns. By the time she had died she had written 77 Gregorian Chants, 72 songs, many poems, and even a medical book. She loved to write. Some of her works were Sci Vias (Knows The Ways), Liber vitae meritorum ( Book of Lifes Merits), Pysikca (Natural History), and Causa et Cural ( Book on Causes of Illnesses and Treatment Methods.
References
1.) Hildegard 1
2.) Hildegard 2